From a Sept. 2008 email: Privatization is coming

I came across this email I sent to someone on ACTC on September 18, 2008. With trivial modifications, I share it with the world, as it contains several still salient points.

Re: Mustio/Turzai on transit costs

How to pronounce Mark Mustio's name: Like "musty odor" without the final "der" sound. Weird, but it works.

Mike Turzai, who's my State Rep, represents Bradford Woods, but the district includes McCandless. In fact, his office is in McCandless, barely a mile from my house. It's right next door to Northland Library, an easy walk from an 11C ride (assuming you can GET to an 11C, which takes an 11D or 500 ride during the day), or a LONG walk from a 12A, about a mile and a quarter along Cumberland Road, headed west from McKnight. Hillvue Lane is the road going up into the back entrance of Northland, a block south of Cumberland. CCAC North is another quarter mile south on Perry Highway.

The two of them are cooking up a plan to de-monopolize transit in Allegheny County. As you described it, you're right, routes like the 51C, the EBA, the 61C, probably the 13A, would be kept, since ridership is high. Cross towns and lesser routes simply won't be kept, which will strand a bunch of people. Routes like the 6C do OK in ridership, but don't pack the buses, and so do not make much money. 11C the same. It's been cut way back since I moved out here.

What these guys don't realize is that, unlike what they're saying, Port Authority's spending is NOT out of control. Well, let me clarify that. What costs they CAN control are NOT out of control. Costs they CANNOT control ARE out of control: Fuel. Health care. Past commitments to future pension contributions. Those concepts do not make for good headlines, but they are reality. Those headlines especially do not sell to the Trib's/KQV's fan base.

Of course, what I've been saying (and saying and saying and getting tired of saying but I gotta keep saying it) is two things. First, that if you can get 50,000 warm bodies to buy fare and ride the system every day, who are not doing that now, the spending deficits go away. Of course some costs will have to go up as a result of putting more buses out there to meet demand, but that will actually make the system easier to use since transfers will be shorter and headways will decrease, each of which in turn will cause more people to want to use the system. The system grows itself. This is all accomplished by making the system easier to figure out how to use.

Which brings me to the second point. This is done by spending money on software and technology. That money is not being spent now, anywhere near as much as it needs to be, and what was spent years ago is being wasted because there isn't anyone available to administer that technology because they've all been laid off. Web site improvements, for instance. Delays in getting new fareboxes in place. We've had GPS on the buses for eight years but still cannot track where the buses are, because that part of the package was not purchased (it was off-the-shelf stuff in 1999) and there's nobody in the I.T. department who can implement it even if we had it now. If we had that piece, you could check on your cell phone to see if the bus you're trying to catch has already passed you or not. All of that is 1997 technology, and we're NOWHERE near getting it, because all we want to do is cut the system. Chopping it into pieces will make it all that much more difficult to implement even if we do get the money and the manpower.

Short version of the above rant: Trash the Mustio/Turzai idea.

Stu

News and Updates. January 2011

service cuts
On Wednesday January 12, Port Authority’s Board of Directors approved a 15% service cut starting with March 27th, 2011. Even though it will have a less disastrous impact on the region than the 35% service cut projected last year, it will still affect negatively many areas around Pittsburgh. If you are not sure if your bus route will be affected, Port Authority offers a detailed list on its website.

Another Board of Directors meeting was called by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) on Friday January 28th in a last attempt to reverse the Board's previous decision regarding a 15% transit cut. ACTC president Jonathan Robinson and ACTC senior member Stu Strickland were registered speakers at this event. Stu's speech is here.

The ACTC speakers leaned towards supporting ATU's suggestion to use the $45 million temporary funding in order to cover the entire budget shortfall for this fiscal year. Under this scenario the Port Authority will have to deal with the possibility of 35% cuts come June 2011 when the current fiscal year will end. On the other side Port Authority's CEO, Steve Bland stated that a 35% cut will be devastating for the region and unavoidable since the "tea leaves aren't reading well" in terms of potential state funding.

But there was one point on which all speakers agreed : transit needs dedicated, lasting funding sources otherwise transit programs across the whole state will continue being shortchanged.


New magnetic card fare system

On the upside Port Authority’s new fare system is back on the right track to be completed by its target date – January 2012. The new system, called Connect, will use rechargeable magnetic cards. Vending points will be situated in accessible spots across Allegheny County.

We hope that the new fare system will allow riders to purchase daily passes as well. Right now a person that may consider using transit from time to time instead of driving, the current system seems to do everything to discourage them as Stu notes in : We need a Day Pass.

The new fare system will also eliminate one of the alleged causes for the T's Red Line delays during the first week of January. Wednesday Jan 26th, at the meeting called by the Allegheny County Council in an attempt to settle a dispute between the Port Authority's administration and its union, ATU made the point that January 3rd being the first weekday for a new fare delays were a very probable consequence. Inbound operators had to spend more than the allotted stop time in order to explain the new fares to cash paying riders.

Building relations with other professionals involved in developing technology solutions and alternatives for transportation

ACTC members Michael Sypolt, Ana Bayne and Stuart Strickland will attend TransportationCamp East in New York City. The event will take place March 5-6, bringing together transportation professionals, technologists and others interested in finding the best alternatives in urban transportation.

From the event's website http://transportationcamp.org/

"Transportation is a major metropolitan issue, with direct impacts on economic strength, environmental sustainability, and social equity"[...]
"TransportationCamp will raise awareness of this opportunity and build
connections between disparate innovators in public administration,
transportation operations, information design, and software
development."

Tweeps @lndaley, @bus15237 and @jimlokay have contributed to this story.

Do you know how much you really spend driving to work

In this post I will try to address a personal finance issue, the costs of using your personal car when commuting for work and several resources that enable you weigh your transportation alternatives. What I won’t discuss here is the cost of car ownership because I think that considering the local geography and specific needs of the contemporary American family, car ownership is a necessity when it comes to activities such as shopping and family trips.

The obvious

The two costs that are obvious to every car owner are one’s car payments and gas. While you may consider buying a used car in order to eliminate car payments for his budget, you have to consider that when you drive to work every day the main quality you are looking for is: reliability. A car does you no good if it breaks down when you needed it most. And when browsing through Kelley Blue book for used vehicles that are no more than 5-6 years old and have less than 100,000 miles on board, I realized that the price tag on a reliable vehicle will probably be around $5-6000. This is an amount that most people cannot afford to pay cash for. However if you do not drive the car every day, you may be able to negotiate and purchase a car for a couple thousands instead and eliminate car payments from your budget.

If your vehicle uses traditional fuel, that is gas, the price trend for it shall worry you. The average gas price in Pennsylvania is little over $3 and unlike 2007 it will not go down. In fact according to president’s Obama State of the Union speech if oil companies lose their subsidies, gas prices will reach the feared $4 /gallon sooner than expected. A way to save on fuel and still drive to work is to switch to a hybrid or electric car. But the price tags for hybrids and alternative fueled vehicles are still much higher than for the average gas fueled car. So while from an environmental point of view these alternatives are great, from a personal finance point of view the trade is not worth since at the current prices one may expect to recoup its investment at best but there is no proof yet that considering both the car price and fuel costs there are significant savings with respect to gas fueled cars.

The not-so-obvious

The three costs most people tend to ignore when writing down a budget are car maintenance, toll roads and parking. And from these three most important is car maintenance. Given the climate of the North East and the Midwest a cautious driver will consider using snow tires during the winter instead of the typical all weather tires.  And even if you can get away with only using all weather tires, as long as you drive the car every day you will need to change them every two years. Same goes for your breaks, rotors and there are the regular oil changes, alignments and registration fees. Now get your bank statements and add all your expenses that are related to car maintenance in last two years. I’ll bet you an oil change that your yearly average is somewhere between $3-500 per year, unless you drive a brand new car with a high price tag.

Of course, if you do not drive the car every day there will be less wear and tear on its breaks and tires and thus your maintenance costs will also be lower.

Rural costs versus urban costs

For most rural dwellers who deal with little or no congestion in their daily commutes the cost of driving to work is a simple equation. They say - I drive x miles round trip  and my car’s mpg is y  and the price of fuel is this z so to figure out how much it costs me to get to work I divide x miles to y and multiply the result with z and that’s the cost per day . So ok , using x, y, z makes it look more complicated than it is but you all get the drill. The main cost related issue that most rural commuters do have is the distance they have to drive to work.

For urban dwellers is a little bit more complicated because the closer they live to the city center the worse is the traffic congestion. And traffic congestion is the worse during peak hours when everybody drives to work and back home. Thus if you figure out your costs  using the simple equation above you are going to miss the time and money you spend slowing down, restarting the car and sitting in traffic. That amount is not that easy to figure out but fortunately the Texas Transportation Institute figured out this type of data  for you. So what does congestion cost you?

To focus only on Pennsylvania:

·         if you live in Philadelphia or the surrounding urban area you are likely to spend another $919 a year due to congestion

·         if you live in Pittsburgh or the surrounding urban area you are likely to spend another $778 a year due to congestion

·         if you live in Allentown or the surrounding urban areas you are likely  to spend $628 a year due to congestion

So, if we disregard the data for Harrisburg, York and the surrounding urban areas that was not available to us, on average the Pennsylvania urban resident spends $775 due to congestion.

Now, assuming you are a PA resident, let’s go over your new car-related expense spreadsheet:

	Rural driver	Urban driver
Car payment [1]	$352.3	$352.3
Maintenance	$35	$35
Gas	$100	$30
Parking and Tolls[2]	$20	$50
Congestion	$0	$64.6
Total	$507.3	$531.9

                                                        [1] For a $15,000/ 48 moth loan at an interest rate of 6% - bankrate.com auto loan calculator

                                                        [2] A rough estimate since parking and toll expenses will vary from widely from case to case

So, it looks that driving to work can easily cost you over $500 a month. Costly, you think? Very much so indeed, but what alternatives do you have:

Commuting alternatives

For urban residents the first option is public transit - visit your region’s public transit agencies website now

If you live in a small city or on a campus you may consider alternatives that are cheaper and more reliable than public transit such as biking and driving to work.

If you reside in a rural area or a suburb that was affected so badly by the most recent transit cuts that you cannot take advantage of public transportation it may be more difficult to find an alternative. Some people may still bike over 10 miles to work but let’s face it most of us cannot even think about biking that far… But there are alternatives such as vanpools and carpools and several websites that provide comprehensive resources on how to go about it. After all you want to know with whom you share your ride. For start these are the two websites I suggest:

PACommutes a website developed and supported by PENDoT

CommuteInfo a website focused on South-Western Pennsylvania residents and a SouthWestern Pennsylvania Commission initiative

Both websites offer a diversity of options from biking trails and lanes/roads to public transportation providers and vanpools and carpools in your area. You can also use their calculators to figure out which option is the best for you time wise and cost wise.

Using one or more of these transportation alternatives instead of driving to work does not mean that you have to give up your car. This is not about waging a war on cars; it is about gaining back the ownership of your car instead of letting the car own you. It is about having multiple transportation alternatives… And to have access to different transportation alternatives in the end it is about having choices…

Notes and resources

Caveat:  Average expenses for things such car maintenance and fuel are based on my discussion with diverse car owners from across the US. I did not collect or analyze this information as statistic data for the purpose of this paper.

The Urban Mobility Report 2010 developed by the University Center for Transportation Mobility, Texas Transportation Institute and retrieved from: http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/mobility_report_2010.pdf  

Bankrate.com

To locate public transportation options in your area
 you can use this map.

Why “ Public Transportation service cuts will affect only bus riders” is a myth...

If you are among those who still think that Port Authority’s service cuts will only affect bus and T riders, you may want to read this post carefully. Because we have enough information at this point to draw quite a complex and accurate picture of the impact that the lack  public transportation services will have on drivers, the air we breathe and the local economy.

Drivers

What if your daily commute will take 3 minutes longer? After all 3 minutes does not seem to be that much time and a trip of 30 minutes does not seem to be much longer or costlier if it lasts 33 minutes...[1]

According to a study developed by Tim Lomax and David Shrank from the Texas Transportation Institute (Developing a Total Travel Time Performance Measure ) those 3 minutes will cost you more than you may think.  The study offers a better measure for the way traffic congestion will cost commuters in terms of travel time and wasted fuel. Instead of matching fuel costs with miles traveled or time spend in traffic, Lomax and Shrank use the Travel Time Index (TTI) as measure. TTI is the ratio between the actual travel time and travel time in ideal traffic conditions or free-flow in an urban area.

For now Pittsburgh does not fare that bad - with a Travel Time Index of 1.17- it is the  29^th most congested  areas among the 101 urban areas evaluated in 2009.  For Pittsburgh TTI of 1.17 implies that each auto commuter wasted 27 gallons of fuel due to congestion and spent $778 per year just for being stuck in traffic. But if the average auto commuter will have to spend 3 more minutes in traffic, the area’s TTI will also be higher and so Port Authority's 35% service cut would’ve caused a 0.08 increase in the region’s TTI from 1.17 to 1.25. Now I know that bare numbers are hard to translate into real traffic conditions, but I will use the information from the   National Congestion Tables  to draw a more tangible picture of what congestion would mean to someone who would  live in Pittsburgh's urban area for a TTI of 1.25*.

·         A Travel Time Index of 1.25 will make traffic congestion in the Pittsburgh Urban Area comparable with Chicago rather than with Charlotte as it is now.

·         Among urban areas of similar size, i.e. large urban areas, only Austin and Las Vegas are likely to have worse traffic than Pittsburgh.

·         The average auto commuter will waste about 5-6 more gallons of gas on average and spend $161.5 more for being stuck in traffic.[2]

·         The situation will be much worse for those commuters who spend most of their commute time within the city limits.

Us, our children and the air we breathe

According to  the Clymate Analysis Indicator Tool in 2005 USA accounted for 18.33% of the global yearly greenhouse emissions, second only to China and it is ranked as number one for cumulative emissions in the 1990-2005 period. The main factor beyond poor air quality is no longer an industry - as once were the manufacturing, chemical and mining - but our traditional fuel powered vehicles . The more the vehicles on the road the higher the emissions … [3]

The local economy

On the short term the most visible impact – two weeks ago I accompanied a coworker in order to help with a conference downtown and he drove in circles trying to find a parking place as three garages and a parking lot we had passed were already full by noon.

On the long term – if the study quoted by AP and Yahoo! News is even remotely correct -crude oil reserves will be depleted before an alternative energy personal vehicle will be available for the mass markets. And investors will avoid putting their money in area that do not offer multiple alternatives for their employees to commute or in other words economic growth will stagnate in areas where the main option for commuters is a personal vehicle.

Fortunately

...Port Authority's service cuts will only be 15% come this March. Thus less routes will be affected and impact could be somewhat limited during peak hours. So, there shall be less car trips than we feared and Pittsburghers will not experience Chicago like traffic this spring. But without a long term solution for dedicated funding for local public transit and multimodal networks the day when traffic in Pittsburgh will be as bad as in Houston may not be that far.

Notes:

[1] According to a study we had mentioned here and here , if former governor Ed Rendell  was not able to prevent the 35% service cuts by finding a temporary  funding solution the average  commute time during peak hours within the Region was estimated to increase by 3 minutes.

[2] Considering a 9% increase in vehicle hours (Transit Operators Committee: Request for Data retrieved from KeepPGHmoving grace to the Downtown Partnership.)

[3] or more details see table -Transit Operators Committee: Request for Data

* these numbers are rough estimates